by Eric Flint
“She a dangerous radical!”
“Well, yeah. I thought that was the point I just made.”
USE naval base
Luebeck
Admiral John Chandler Simpson’s wife Mary happened to be visiting him when the telegram arrived from Veleda Riddle. After reading it, the admiral handed it to her.
“You’ll love this,” he said.
Mary Simpson read through it twice. “I don’t see what all the fuss is about.” She gave her husband a rather arch look. “I’m sorry if it took you Episcopalians until the 1970s to finally get around to it, but we Unitarians ordained our first female minister all the way back in 1871. That would be eighteen seventy-one. Celia Burleigh, her name was.”
“Yes, dear, I know. You’ve told me before.” His patient tone was replaced by a more mischievous one. “But I will point out that 1871—that would be eighteen seventy-one—is exactly two hundred and thirty-five years from now. That would be the year sixteen thirty-six. Not even your precious Socinians have female clergy, so far as I know.”
Mary pursed her lips and tapped them with the rolled-up telegram. “I’m pretty sure you’re right. I think the very first female clergy—well, since the very first centuries when there’s some evidence of women serving as priests—came out of the Society of Friends. The Quakers, as they’re usually called. But I don’t think they even exist yet, and if they do it’d only be in England. Hmm…”
“You’re making me nervous, Mary.”
“I think I may visit Dresden soon. Our son probably needs some encouragement”—she gave her husband a very mischievous smile—“seeing as how he’s now a bishop. First one ever in the family, I believe.”
Chapter 35
Magdeburg, capital of the United States of Europe
“We have certainly won a majority in the House of Commons, that much is clear already.” For a moment, Rebecca continued to study the big map of the USE hanging on the wall of the meeting room, and then stepped over to the blackboard next to it.
“As far as the provinces are concerned, here is what we know so far.”
She began writing in big, clear Roman letters. No Fraktur here.
PROVINCES SURE TO ELECT FOURTH OF JULY MAJORITIES
Mecklenburg
Magdeburg
Saxony
Thuringia-Franconia
Württemberg
Oberpfalz
“So, six out of sixteen,” said Constantin Ableidinger. “What we expected—but it does mean we’ll be in a definite minority in the House of Lords.”
Rebecca shook her head. “You’re jumping to conclusions. Wait until I finish.” She went back to writing.
PROVINCES SURE TO ELECT CROWN LOYALIST MAJORITIES
Westphalia
Brunswick
Hesse-Kassel
Tyrol
PROVINCES SURE TO ELECT REACTIONARY MAJORITIES
Pomerania
“Huh!” exclaimed Ableidinger. “That can’t be right, Rebecca.”
“What? That Pomerania would be run by a pack of medieval hooligans?” demanded Charlotte Kienitz. “What rock have you been hiding under, Constantin? We all knew Pomerania would—”
He waved a big hand irritably. “No, no! I’m not talking about Pomerania. Back up. I was referring to the list of provinces who’ll be electing Crown Loyalist majorities. There can’t just be those four. What about Jülich-Berg, the Upper Rhine and the Province of the Main—and Swabia, for that matter?”
Rebecca’s face might have held just a trace of annoyance. Just a trace, though. The young Sephardic woman was a natural diplomat.
“Please, Constantin. Patience. I’ll get to them.”
He settled back in his chair and she added one more province to the list of those which would be electing reactionary leaderships:
Brandenburg
“Now we get to the provinces you were wondering about,” said Rebecca. She went back to writing on the blackboard.
PROVINCES WHERE THE ELECTION IS STILL UNDECIDED
Jülich-Berg
Upper Rhine
Main
Swabia
Finished, she set the chalk down. “Based on the returns so far, our best guess is that the Crown Loyalists will wind up with majorities—rather slim, but still clear majorities—in the provinces of the Main and the Upper Rhine.”
“And Swabia? Jülich-Berg?” asked Ableidinger. Charlotte Kienitz scowled at him. So did just about everyone else packed into the room.
“Let’s start up a chant,” proposed Albert Bugenhagen, the mayor of Hamburg. “Constantin, be quiet! Constantin, be quiet! Let Rebecca finish!”
The chant was immediately taken up by most of the people there.
“CONSTANTIN, BE QUIET! CONSTANTIN, BE QUIET! LET REBECCA FINISH!”
The one-time leader of the Ram movement, currently a Member of Parliament from a district in Franconia, grinned. “I make no promises,” he said. “Silence does not come naturally to me.”
“Understatement of the century,” muttered Charlotte. “Please go on, Rebecca.”
“Swabia is turning out to be a surprise,” Rebecca said. “We thought the Crown Loyalists would probably win the same sort of majority they look likely to win in Main and the Upper Rhine. Instead, it looks as if we might win the province—and by a surprising margin.”
“How sure are you?” asked Matthias Strigel, the governor of Magdeburg province.
Rebecca looked to the side and gestured at a young woman standing against the wall. “I will let Gisela explain. She’s the one on our staff who’s been following Swabia the closest.”
She gestured again. “Come, Gisela. Don’t be shy.”
A little uncertainly, the young woman stepped forward and came to stand beside Rebecca in front of the big blackboard. Then, realizing where she was, moved over a bit to stand in front of the map. “Is there…”
Rebecca pointed to a wand hanging by a nail. “Use that as a pointer.”
Gisela took the wand in hand. “Swabia is a hard province to follow because it’s so spread out. When Württemberg became its own province”—she placed the pointer on it—“what seems to have happened politically is that different regions in Swabia next to it became heavily influenced by the three big imperial cities in the area, Strassburg, Ulm and Augsburg.”
Quickly, Gisela tapped the spots indicating the imperial cities in question. Strassburg and its large hinterland were on the western border of Swabia, nestled between Burgundy and Lorraine. Augsburg, whose hinterland was much smaller, was on the opposite side of the province, right on the Bavarian border. Ulm, also with a large hinterland, was more-or-less in the middle of Swabia, abutting Württemberg.
“Ulm is solidly Crown Loyalist in its sympathies,” Gisela continued, “and their attitudes affect this whole area of Swabia”—the wand swept up and down along the edge of the imperial city—“especially to the south, near Tyrol. But Strassburg and Augsburg have become more and more favorable to our party over the past period.”
“Strassburg, too?” asked Kienitz. “I knew that was true of Augsburg.”
“Oh, yes.” Gisela smiled. “There seems to be a rough rule of thumb that applies most everywhere in the United States of Europe—well, except for in Brandenburg and Pomerania. The closer an area is to a war zone or a possible war zone, the more likely they are to be favorable to the Fourth of July Party.”
“But—” That came from Strigel, who was frowning in puzzlement. “I realize that nobody has much trust in Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar—well, I suppose I should call him Grand Duke Bernhard, since we’ve officially recognized his County of Burgundy—and there’s been some chaos in Lorraine lately. But that was caused by the French who look to be starting their own civil war, since Louis was murdered and Gaston made himself the new king. It doesn’t seem to have much to do with us.”
Rebecca issued a soft laugh. “You underestimate the power of romance, Matthias.”
“What does that mean?”
/> “It is widely known in Strassburg—all of western Swabia, I imagine—that we recently sent Captain Harry Lefferts into Lorraine to help Duchess Nicole restore peace to her principality.” She spread her hands, as if offering something up for inspection. “You see? Wherever there is trouble with foreigners, you are always better served to send someone like Captain Lefferts. What good are Crown Loyalists for that?”
“It’s the same thing that’s affecting the election in Jülich-Berg,” said Gisela. “People haven’t forgotten the destruction caused by Hessian troops when Wilhelm V tried to seize Bonn and Cologne. There’s a lot of hard feelings still—but it also reinforces the attitude that the Fourth of July Party is a lot more interested in fighting enemies than it is in grabbing stuff for itself.”
“Do you really think we might win in Jülich-Berg?” asked Ableidinger.
“No way to know yet,” said Rebecca. “Jülich-Berg is a new province so it still does not have much experience with organizing elections and tabulating the results. Swabia is not much better. So it will be a while before the final results are in. My guess is that the Crown Loyalists will wind up winning the election in Jülich-Berg, but by a slim margin.”
“But you’re sure about the general outcome?” asked Strigel.
“Oh, yes,” said Rebecca. “Here, I’ll show you.” She picked up a rag and wiped off the chalk marks she’d made earlier. Then, started writing afresh.
PERCENTAGE OF VOTE PER PROVINCE FOR FOJP
Magdeburg (80%)
Mecklenburg (70%)
Saxony (70%)
Thuringia-Franconia (65%)
Württemberg (60%)
Oberpfalz (60%)
“These are rough estimates, of course. But we don’t expect them to vary by more than five percent either way.” She went back to writing.
Westphalia (45%)
Brunswick (40%)
Hesse-Kassel (40%)
“Huh! We got that much in Hesse-Kassel too?” said Ableidinger in his booming voice. “I would have thought—”
“CONSTANTIN, BE QUIET! CONSTANTIN, BE QUIET! LET REBECCA FINISH!”
Ableidinger laughed—boomingly. But he did shut up.
Rebecca wrote the name of the last definitely Crown Loyalist province.
Tyrol (20%)
“As you can see,” she said, “the only province where the Crown Loyalists have run up the kind of super-majorities that we have in most of our provinces is Tyrol.” She shrugged. “Which became part of the USE very recently, and has never—so far—had much in the way of a CoC or FOJ presence.”
She set down the chalk again. “So, yes, there is no doubt that we will have an absolute majority in Parliament.” She bestowed a smile on Ed Piazza, who was sitting in his usual seat at the middle of the big table in the center. “All hail our new prime minister!”
“ALL HAIL! ALL HAIL!”
The room burst into laughter. Ed made a face.
When things had settled down, Rebecca resumed speaking. “The results from the imperial cities favor us as well,” she said.
Once again, she used the cloth to erase the blackboard. “Here are the results from there. These are quite accurate, by the way. By now, all of the imperial cities can produce quick and accurate election tallies. I will rank them in order.”
Magdeburg (88%)
That produced a big cheer. Rebecca ignored it and kept writing.
Luebeck (72%)
Hamburg (64%)
Augsburg (57%)
Strassburg (52%)
Ulm (45%)
Cologne (43%)
Frankfurt am Main (38%)
“Again, we see the same pattern. Our majorities are simply greater than theirs, almost everywhere. The only real exception is Tyrol.”
“What about Pomerania and Brandenburg?” asked Charlotte.
Rebecca softly slapped her hands together to brush off the chalk. “I won’t bother writing it down. For one thing, because those two provinces are very slow about tallying the election results. Our best guess at the moment is that the Crown Loyalists will get somewhere around one-third of the vote, we will get one-tenth—if we’re lucky—and a not-so-small pack of reactionaries will wind up with a clear majority. Whether or not they’ll be able to form actual functioning government majorities is anybody’s guess. Probably, in Brandenburg; probably not, in Pomerania.”
“Who would run the province, then?” asked Bugenhagen.
“For all practical purposes, Pomerania has been directly administered by the Swedes for years. I expect that to continue, with one or another reactionary as the official governor of the province.” She smiled, rather sardonically. “Knowing Gustav Adolf, he will make sure it is some docile eighty-year-old dimwit.”
That got another laugh from the whole room. As did Ableidinger’s follow-on quip: “A deaf, dumb and blind octogenarian! Our emperor is no slouch!”
Ed Piazza had not been participating in the jests. Instead, he’d been scribbling in a notebook. He now looked up, his lips pursed, and issued a whistle of surprise.
“I think we may even wind up dominating the House of Lords. Assuming we get the imperial cities added to it—which we ought to, if we wind up with the kind of majority in the House of Commons that Rebecca thinks we’re going to get.”
“How is that possible?” asked Strigel, frowning. “Most of the provinces have hereditary or appointed heads of state.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” said Piazza. “Rebecca, can you put what I read up on the blackboard? Thank you.”
As Ed began reading from his notes, Rebecca transferred the information so everyone in the room could read it.
PROVINCES WITH ELECTED HEADS OF STATE
Magdeburg
Mecklenburg
Saxony
Thuringia-Franconia
Württemberg
Oberpfalz
PROVINCES WITH HEREDITARY HEADS OF STATE
Westphalia
Brunswick
Hesse-Kassel
Tyrol
Jülich-Berg
“So far, as you can see, the split falls exactly along party lines. The six provinces with elected heads of state are all Fourth of July, the five with hereditary provinces, all Crown Loyalist except for possibly Jülich-Berg.” He grinned, very cheerily. “One of the side effects of Gustav Adolf settling accounts with John George of Saxony and his brother-in-law the former Elector of Brandenburg is that those two provinces no longer have hereditary rulers. Saxony is now a republic and Brandenburg—at least for the moment—is under direct imperial administration.
“Now, moving right along… Rebecca, would you please list the provinces under direct imperial administration?”
She put them up on the blackboard:
Pomerania
Brandenburg
Upper Rhine
Main
Swabia
After she finished, everyone contemplated the list for a while.
“Huh,” said Ableidinger. “We have six, the Crown Loyalists have five—and our sneaky way-too-smart emperor has the remaining five by proxy. Did I say ‘proxy’? No, no—a hundred times, no! The cunning of the man knows no bounds. He is the head of all five of those states, as—what are the titles? I forget. ‘Duke of Pomerania’ is one of them.”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Piazza. “Constantin’s quite right. Essentially, the House of Lords is divided almost equally into thirds: one-third us, one third the Crown Loyalists, one-third Gustav Adolf.”
He leaned forward in his chair. “But now look what happens if we add the eight imperial cities to the House of Lords. Rebecca, if you’d do the honors…”
Again, she had to erase everything on the blackboard to make room for the new material.
IMPERIAL CITIES, PARTY AFFILIATION FoJP
Magdeburg
Luebeck
Hamburg
Augsburg
Strassburg
IMPERIAL CITIES, PARTY AFFILIATION CROWN LOYALIST
Ulm
Frankfurt am Main
Cologne?
“We are actually not sure how Cologne will line up politically,” Rebecca said. “The same issue is involved with Jülich-Berg. One the one hand, Duchess Katharina Charlotte is the hereditary ruler of the province and as such someone we would expect to be inclined toward the Crown Loyalists. On the other hand, she has had a very recent unpleasant experience with Hesse-Kassel, whose current ruler Amalie Elizabeth is one of the recognized central leaders of the Crown Loyalists. In addition, she is Catholic and the city of Cologne is very staunchly Catholic.
“It makes for a complicated situation. The area is politically rather conservative but is also Catholic and has just recently fought what amounted to a war against Protestant Hesse-Kassel—and all of the Crown Loyalist leaders and provinces are Protestant. So Katharina Charlotte and Cologne might very well look toward us for protection of their religious freedoms. We will just have to see what happens.”